KINDERGARTEN

Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:

• Participate in the life and mission of the school.
• Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
• Build capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
• Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
• Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.

Religious Education

Our School and Parish Community

The children will be welcomed into the life of a Catholic School and Catholic Community. They will develop simple prayer routines with a focus on the sign of the cross. They will explore key symbols and religious objects in the school and parish environment. Prayer places and the importance of prayer will be introduced. The children will explore some core beliefs of the Catholic faith: God as creator, Jesus as the light of the world, the Holy Spirit and Mary, the Mother of God. The foundational image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd will also be presented through the story of the Good Shepherd.

Liturgical Year - Lent and Holy Week 

The students will explore the traditional beliefs, Scripture and events celebrated by the Catholic community throughout Lent and Holy Week.

English

Reading fluency and Reading comprehension: 

The children will be developing skills and strategies to begin to read words. Children will learn to recall details of texts read to them and identify who, what, when, where and why. The students will be encouraged to use background knowledge when identifying connections between a text, their own life, other texts and/or the world. 

Creating written texts: 

The children will practise recording sounds we hear in words and writing out tricky words. We are emphasising writing left to right across the page, leaving spaces in between words and understanding the use of capital letters and full stops in a sentence. Students will learn to write using draw, talk, write and share to help build confidence and proficiency. 

Handwriting: 

The children this term will learn to write letters of the alphabet using a stable posture when handwriting or drawing by sitting with their feet flat on the floor, the writing arm resting on a table, with the opposite hand resting on the paper and shoulders relaxed. They will trace fluency patterns and track letters to assist their fine motor skills required in writing.

Spelling and Phonemic awareness:

The students will be introduced to the ‘Decodable Readers Australia Program.’ Decodable Readers Australia is a program designed to develop reading and spelling skills through phonological awareness and phonic knowledge. This is a knowledge and understanding of the correspondence between sounds and letters to read and write words. This term, the students will be introduced to the letter/sound correspondences of common consonants and short vowels. They will segment and blend sounds to read words, sentences and decodable books as well as spell words.  

Mathematics

In the first term of Kindergarten students are introduced to early mathematical concepts from the NSW Syllabus. Activities are differentiated to cater for all student needs and abilities. The students will use a variety of counting and other physical materials to assist with concept development.

The concepts taught in Term 1 are:

• Non-spatial Measure (Time) - Students will order the duration of events and connect the days of the week to familiar events. 

• Geometric Measure (Position) - Students will describe positions and movement of oneself. 

• Data - Students will respond to questions, collect information and discuss possible outcomes of activities. 

• Forming Groups - Students will copy, continue and create patterns.

• Representing Numbers - Students will recognise number patterns and use the counting sequence of ones flexibly. 

• 3D Spatial Structure (3D Objects) - Students will explore familiar three-dimensional objects.  

• 2D Spatial Structure (2D Shapes) - Students will sort, describe, represent and name familiar shapes.

Students will also focus on subitising and recognising number patterns for 1-9 and counting forwards and backwards by ones. 

Science and Technology

In the ‘What’s it made of?’ program, the children will inquire about and explore the observable properties of various materials and why the properties of materials affect their use. They will begin to explore the design process.

Geography

The children will participate in a unit called ‘People Live in Places'. Students investigate the places they live in and belong to. They will understand that places vary and people have different views about the use of places. They observe and describe the features of their own place and investigate the meaning of belonging to a place. The concept of important/special places will also be introduced. Students think about what makes a place special and how and why special places need to be taken care of. The geographical tools covered in this term include visual representations and mapping. The geographical concept of space is addressed.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE)

In Term 1, students will engage in a variety of physical activities designed to develop and refine their fundamental movement skills. This will include developing their non-locomotive and locomotive movement skills such as running, hopping, skipping, leaping and jumping. Through individual, group and team-based activities, students will explore how to move their bodies effectively and with confidence. The unit encourages active participation, problem-solving, and decision-making, allowing students to discover new ways of moving while fostering a positive attitude towards physical activity and health. 

A program titled ‘Open Parachute’ will be taught K - 6. Open Parachute aims to provide practical support on mental health to students. The program aims to reduce stigma and generate authentic dialogue in classrooms about the real issues students face. The psychological skill-building exercises aim to increase empathy, self-compassion, self-awareness, mental health literacy, and self-efficacy in students.

Creative Arts

Creative Arts will occur for 90 minutes per week incorporating Music, Visual Arts and Drama. The Visual Arts program will link to our Literacy program as students explore and build their understanding of texts through various creative media.

In Music with Mr Parlato, students will explore music through singing, playing and listening in a supportive and engaging environment. With teacher guidance, they will perform familiar songs and rhymes, experiment with organising sounds into simple structures and respond to a variety of musical pieces. Students will develop their awareness of beat, pitch, dynamics, and tempo while engaging with accompaniments and other musical repertoire presented to them.

Homework 

Kindergarten will begin simple homework in the coming weeks. This will consist of a list of the Term 1 tricky words and a counting program designed to build fluency with number recall and formation. More details will be sent home to explain this, closer to the date.

We look forward to working with you and your child this term. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note, email or by appointment through the school office. 

We look forward to continuing to work with you and your child this term. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note, email or by appointment through the school office. 

Miss Mikayla Giovenco (KBlue)

Miss Hayley Wilson (KGold)

Mrs Danielle Suttor and Ms Liz O'Brien (KWhite)

Important Dates for Year Kindergarten

Sport 

Sport days for Kindergarten are as follows:

KBlue - Wednesday and Friday 

KGold - Wednesday and Friday 

KWhite - Wednesday and Friday 

Students are to wear their sports uniform on these days. 

Library 

Each week, students will have the opportunity to borrow books from our school library. Please ensure your child brings their Library Bag to school.  

KBlue - Wednesday 

KGold - Wednesday

KWhite - Wednesday

Meet and Greet Times: 

Wednesday, 19th February between 3:15pm-6:00pm

Tuesday, 25th February  between 8:00am - 8:50am

Wednesday, 26th February between 3:15pm-4:30pm

Friday, 28th February between 8:00am - 8:50am

Please allocate a time to meet with your child’s Kindergarten teacher on book via Compass. This is an opportunity for you to tell us about your child before we start their first year of school. 

2025 - School Term 1

 Parent calendar available at this link